Recap: DeFi Week of Oct. 21 🦄

Hello defiers! Hope you’re having a great weekend.

Summing up: People are taking to the streets across the globe and decentralized finance can be a tool in a world where trust in institutions is eroding. Governance discussions and announcements made headlines and as always, new DeFi products were launched, pushing the boundaries just a little bit further. I interviewed InstaDApp cofounder Sowmay Jain on his vision for the future of finance.

Interview

The 19 and 21 Year-Old Crypto Native Brothers Rebuilding Finance

Sowmay Jain and his brother Samyak dropped out of college to focus on crypto, won first place in an Ethereum hackathon, built a platform that quickly climbed to become the fourth biggest in DeFi by value locked, and three weeks ago closed a $2.4 million seed funding round with investors including Pantera Capital, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and Coinbase Ventures. All from Hyderabad, India. Their story is an example of how much decentralized finance is lowering the barriers of entry thanks to its global nature, composability among platforms, open code and welcoming community.

News & Views

Friday

• Institutions are Coming to the MakerDAO Voting Booth: Anchorage, a digital asset custody firm, yesterday unveiled a governance platform for its institutional clients and MakerDAO’s MKR is the first token it supports.
• Compound Upgrades to Reduce Admin Control: Compound Finance, the second-biggest DeFi platform, announced upgrades aimed at reducing the administrator’s ability to make rapid changes to the protocol.
• Aave Lending Protocol Launches on Testnet: Aave lending protocol launched on a public Ethereum testnet with features such as short-term uncollateralized loans that differentiate it from other DeFi lending platforms.

Wednesday

• MakerDAO Dominance Dipped Below 50%: The amount of value locked in MakerDAO briefly dropped below 50 percent of total collateral in decentralized finance for the first time, before bounding back today.
• Looks Like There’s Easy Money in a $110,000 Augur Market: There’s a 701 ETH ($110,000) bet on whether Justin Trudeau will be re-elected Prime Minister of Canada. That’s the biggest open market on Augur right now (second is whether Donald Trump will win 2020 elections), and 12th biggest ever, according to Predictions.Global website.
• Maker Community Discusses Delegated Voting: MakerDAO’s Mariano Conti recently brought up the question of whether MKR holders would be willing to delegate their vote.

Tuesday

• There's a Global Seismic Shift Underway: Protests are erupting all across the globe, most recently in Chile. People feel cheated by those in power who, through economic mismanagement and/or corruption, squander their chance to get ahead. Trust in institutions is starting to break.

💜Community Love💜

Thanking all the amazing defiers for the support and love this week (and always!)

Marc 'Devcon VI en Buenos Aires' Zeller @lemiscateVery popular opinion : "Bankless" by @RyanSAdams and "The Defiant" by @CamiRusso are worth every penny. Kudos to both on your work.2:50 PM ∙ Oct 25, 201920Likes6Retweets

Peter Abilla @shmula@PeterMcCormack I think @CamiRusso's The DeFiant is really well-done

thedefiant.substack.comThe DefiantA daily newsletter decrypting the intersection of blockchain and finance8:42 PM ∙ Oct 25, 20196Likes1Retweet

Kevin Nielsen @kevinknielsenIn parallel to all this, the Maker community discussed vote delegation given low participation numbers in recent votes and polls: Read all about in this 🔥 edition of @CamiRusso's The Defiant thedefiant.substack.com/p/easy-money-i…

👹 Mariano Conti @nanexcoolIf you could delegate your MKR to someone (non-custodial, retrieve at any time) so you don't have to vote every week, would you do it? Who in the community would you trust to vote in your best interest?

thedefiant.substack.comEasy Money in 700 ETH Augur Market, MakerDAO Dominance and Delegated VotesHello defiers! Here’s what’s going on in decentralized finance: MakerDAO dominance slides There’s a $110,000 Augur market Maker community discusses delegated voting MakerDAO Dominance Dipped Below 50% The amount of value locked in MakerDAO briefly dropped below 50 percent4:45 PM ∙ Oct 27, 20192Likes2Retweets

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